Jak 4
Jak 4 and Jak and Daxter 4 were tentative titles for an undeveloped project by Naughty Dog Inc.Dark Horse Comics and Naughty Dog, Inc. (2014). Chapter VI: "Undeveloped Projects" in The Art of Naughty Dog. pp 148. ISBN 9781616554774. The installment would presumably be the first game developed for a rebooted ''Jak and Daxter'' series, a topic that Naughty Dog explored before moving onto Uncharted and The Last of Us in 2006 and 2009, respectively. Art released by Naughty Dog in 2014 indicated a dramatic shift from the familiar cartoonistic character design in the original Jak and Daxter series, towards a more realistic approach. Shortly after conceiving of The Last of Us, Naughty Dog decided to forgo a Jak and Daxter reboot and move on to a new IP.Dark Horse Comics and Naughty Dog, Inc. (2014). Chapter V: "The Last of Us" in The Art of Naughty Dog. pp 127—128. ISBN 9781616554774. History 2006 Efforts to develop another Jak and Daxter game date as far back to 2006, following the release of Jak 3 and Jak X: Combat Racing as Sony began sharing news of the PS3 hardware with Naughty Dog. It is at this time that reports surfaced of Naughty Dog's registration of the name "Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier". Naughty Dog anticipated new PS3 technology for 2005, but Sony delayed sharing until 2006. Evan Wells, Bruce Straley, and Christophe Balestra described in The Art of Naughty Dog that the years spanning 2004 and 2007 were some of "Naughty Dog's darkest days," as the transition from PS2 to PS3 was "far from smooth sailing" for the company: Eventually however, PS3 technology arrived and a new IP codenamed "Big" began to take form after concepts and proposals of Jak and Daxter reinvented as a "linear story-telling approach" instead evolved into a new and original Naughty Dog IP. This would go on to become Uncharted, while Jak and Daxter and the PS2 then became associated with a single passing era, and would not be revisited until later in 2009. 2009 While developing the 2008 title Uncharted 2 in 2007 and 2008, Naughty Dog shared property with High Impact Games to head the development of a sequel with the propriety title Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier; as Naughty Dog claimed at that time that they were "unable to develop The Lost Frontier and Uncharted simultaneously." The game followed through with development by High Impact Games alone, announced April 1, 2009 as Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier. However, Naughty Dog later expressed regret and acknowledged: The game went on to garner moderate reception, with an average of 70% critical acclaim, average marketplace success, and mostly poor fan reception. 2010 After the release of The Lost Frontier in late 2009, going into 2010 and spanning approximately one year, Naughty Dog revisited what was described as a "treat to come back to" as they attempted to create a "more realistic, more contemporary approach to Jak and Daxter." However, throughout early development efforts, the team began to realize that "there were already so many firmly established relationships, character personalities, and character motivations" and "it became tougher to feel engaged by the prospect of making a new Jak and Daxter game" due to a dilemma: "If we stuck to the constraints of the already established world, would we be happy with the type of game we were about to make?" ... "If we diverged too greatly from those constraints to tell the type of story we wanted to tell, were we actually making Jak and Daxter anymore?" Upon realizing their attempts would not pan out, they again moved away from the Jak and Daxter series, believing that ultimately they would be "doing the fans a disservice." This is when a project codenamed "Thing" began to take form, which would evolve into the largely popular and successful 2013 title The Last of Us. The future of Jak and Daxter in Naughty Dog studios remains static, with the company's representatives citing that, due to circumstances, Jak and Daxter has not yet been reconsidered but "is never off the table." Gallery Jak 4 concept art 2.png|Realistic graphical approaches to Jak's character design. Jak 4 concept art 3.png|Realistic graphical approaches to various creatures and robots (bottom), and a Jak and Daxter scene (top). Daxter from Jak 4 concept art.png|Alternative character design approaches for Daxter. References Category:Games